Adjustable gun mount



March 15,, E938. B. M. SMILING fl ADJUSTABLE GUN MOUNT Filed Nov. 7, 1955 2 Sheets-Sheet i IN VEN TOR.

ATTORNEY March 15, 1938. B. M. SMILING 7 2,111,008

ADJUSTABLE GUN MOUNT Filed Nov. 7, 1935 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN VE N TOR. B fill/120M 51271/1'17 ATTORNEY Patented Mar. 15, 1938 snmsrsnan PATENT OFFICE I GUN MOUNT Bruno M. Smiling, Devon, Conn, assignor, by

mesne assignments, to United Aircraft Corporation, a corporation of Delaware Application November '1, 1933, Serial No. 696,962

30laims.

Thisinvention relates to adiustable gun mounts and especially to those for supporting machine guns in airplanes.

Adjustable machine gun mounts of the prior art for use in airplanes have been somewhat bulky and heavy devices, usually held in their various adjusted positions by means of some mechanical locking device such as a ratchet, key or pin. Regardless of the accuracy of manufacture of these mounts they would eventually developlost motion in the locking device and would then vibrate in use and cause a dispersion of the projectiles. In order 'to stow the gun when not in use, it was usually removed free from its mount,

taken out of 'the wind stream and placed in some convenient position in or adjacent to the gunners cockpit.

When the gun is removed from the mount, there is always the hazardof losing the gun overboard before it is safely stowed or before it is again secured in place on the gun mount. In some cases were due to the construction of the gun mount, or for other reasons it is particularly v diflicult to remove the gun from the mount to stow it while the plane is in flight, the gun'iis allowed to remain in position onthe gun mount and in the wind stream. This, of course, increases the resistance or drag of the planewith a consequent loss of efficiency or speed.

One object of my invention is to provide a gun mount on which the gun may be readily, stowed in a small space in the gunners cockpit out of the wind stream without removing the gun free of its mount. v

. Another-object of my invention is to provide a mount for a gun which may be readily adjusted to various firing positions or stowed out of the wind stream.

Another object of my invention is to provide a gun mount with an efficient and durable locking device.

Another object of my invention is to provide a light weight adjustable gun mount.

Further and other objects and advantages will be apparent from the specification and claims and from the accompanying drawings which 11- lustrate what is now considered the preferred embodiment.

Fig. 1 is a side elevation showing a portion of an airplane and one position of the gun in relation to the'gunner's cockpit.

Fig. 2 is a side view of the gun mount.

Fig. 3 is an end view of the gun mount.

Fig. 4 is a top sectional view taken on line 4-4 (CI. 89475) I of Fig.3 with a portion of the hub and support broken away.

Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken on the line 5-5 of Fig. 2.

Fig. 6 is a side elevation, showing a portion of 5 an airplane with the gun in stowed position; and

Fig. 7 is an end view thereof. The invention has been shown as applied to an airplane l0 having a gimners cockpit l2. As usually installed, the gun is mounted on the rear 10 portion of the cockpit and is intended to have its greatest usefulness in firing to the rear or over the side of the airplane. The gun i4 is shown pointing to the rear in Fig. 1 and is mounted on the usual universal connection or yoke I i.

The connection It is mounted on one end, ll, of an arm 20 which has an approximately right angled bend therein. The other end, 22, of the arm 20 is journaled in a hub or hearing 24. In the modification shown, this'hub is made of one 20 piece with spaced bearings 26 and 28. These 1 bearings are split along one side thereof and are adapted to be contracted into frictional clamping engagement with end 22 of the arm 2| by means of cap screws 3. and 32. The outer ends of these cap screws are serrated to adjustably receive levers 34 and 3 which levers are clamped in place by means of bolts 38 and 4|. A link 42 connects lever 36 with lever 34, which latter lever is extended and provided with a handle 44, which may be operated by either the hand or the knee of thegunner or may be constructed for operation by a foot treadle. The end 22 of the rotating arm is provided with threads which co-act with similar threads in the bearings 26 and 28 to increase the friction and the bearing surface between these two members. Parallel grooves may beused instead of the threads, by providing the bearings 26 and 28 with removable caps to permit assembly. It is expressly understood that other forms of frictional locking mechanisms may be used without departing from the spirit of my in-' vention and that I may control the action of this friction lock from a remote point such as adjacent the gun. As an example of a modified clamp, the split bearings 26, 28 maybe contracted' by means of springs to frictlonally engage the rotating arm 22 and be expanded to'free the arm by means of a cam working against the ac tion of the spring and controlled by levers or a Bowden wire from a point adjacent the gun butt. A member 46 is secured in any suitable mannerv to the airplane structural members, and supports the hub 24 by means of a bolt 48 and by pins 50-50, slidable in tube 5| secured in hub 24. The

pins 50-50 are beveled adjacent one end to coact with corresponding beveled portions 53-53 of the arm 46 so that when the gun is being placed in firing position, the pins slide up the bevels 53-53 and are automatically forced into retracted position in the tube i. The pins 62- 62 sliding in slots in the tube 5| prevent rotation of the pins 50-50.

The pins 50 are spring pressed outwardly into registering holes in the member 46 and prevent any movement of the hub about the bolt 48. The ends of the pins 50 may be tapered, if desired, to avoid having the end of the pin catch on the edge of the hole, and the hole in 46 may be correspondingly tapered, if desired, so that the pin will automatically take up any wear or looseness that may develop. The pins may be extracted from these holes by pushing on push buttons 52 or by actuation of the lever 54. Lever 54 is rigidly connected with a two-armed lever 56 having pins extending laterally from its two extremities. These pins co-act with levers 58 and 60 so that,

downward movement of lever 54 causes the endsof levers 58' and 60 to press on pins 62-62, and withdraw pins 50 from the holes in member 46 against the tension of spring 64.

When the pins have been withdrawn from their registering holes in member 46, hub 24 is free to rotate downwardly about the bolt 48. This rotation causes the gun mount to be folded into the cockpit. After the gun is in the cock-pit, it may be pushed to one side by rotation of the arm 20 in the hub 24 and stowed out of the way, as shown in Figs. 6 and '7. If desired, a spring clip 66 may be provided to hold the gun in position at the side of the cockpit.

The hub is so supported that the axis of the end 22 is inclined to the vertical when the airplane is in a horizontal position. In the mount shown, it was found that twenty-five degrees was a convenient angle of inclination. This inclination of the axis is such that the weight of the gun helps to neutralize the efiect of the wind stream upon the gun. The weight of the gun tends to turn the arm 20 from its elevated position at the rear to a lower position at either side and, therefore, assists in moving the gun downward against the wind stream to positions at the side, and the wind stream assists in moving the gun upward to its elevated position at the rear.

Many advantages of the use of this rotating arm will at once present themselves, among which is the ability of the gunner to sight the gun over a wide range without having to lean over the cockpit side or indeed exposing himself to the wind stream. He is on the other hand able to stay behind the customary wind shield and out of the wind stream, while sighting the gun over this large range.

In order to bring the gun into firing position the arm 20 from the hub 24and the gun may then be swung into any desired position, where it may be securely locked by movement of the lever 44.

It. is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific embodiment herein illustrated and described, as it is adaptable to a great number of other uses, such as mounting motion picture cameras and other apparatus which is trained on a moving objective, and is not restricted to use in an airplane. It may be used in various other ways without departure from its spirit, as defined by the following claims.

What I claim is:

1. A gun mount comprising, in combination, a hub having a split bearing, a standard comprising a bent arm and constituting the sole support for said gun having an angularly disposed portion rotatably mounted in said bearing, cooperating screw threads on said supporting portion and. said bearing, manual means for contracting said split bearing on said supporting portion to hold said standard in any desired position in said bearing against lateral of axial movement of the gun, and pivotal means having its axis substantially at right angles to the axis of said bearing connecting said bearing to its support.

2. A device, as described in claim 1, in which the hub has a normal position, wherein the axis of the bearing is inclined to the vertical.

3. In an airplane having a cockpit, a gun mount comprising, a standard having a substantially right angle bend therein adapted to carrying a gun on one end, a split bearing supported on said airplane at the edge of said cockpit and rotatably supporting said standard, cooperating screw threads on said bearing and on the portion of said standard engaged by said bearing, manually operable means for contracting said hearing upon said standard to hold said standard in any desired position with respect to said bearing against lateral or axial movement of said gun, means for pivotally connecting said bearing with said airplane so that said bearing may be swung at will from its operative to its inoperative position, and means for releasably locking said bearing in its operative position. 

